A French court ruled yesterday that James Kopp, wanted for the sniper murder of an upstate abortion doctor, can be extradited to the United States.

Kopp, 46, showed no emotion when the three-judge panel in the northeastern city of Rennes announced its decision – based on the promise that “the death penalty will not be requested, pronounced or applied.”

Kopp, who is on the FBI’s “10 Most Wanted” list, has until next Wednesday to decide whether to appeal to France’s highest court. An appeal could take many months.

Kopp, known as “Atomic Dog” in anti-abortion circles, is accused of killing Dr. Barnett Slepian, 52, with a single rifle shot on Oct. 23, 1998, as he chatted with his family in the kitchen of his home in the Buffalo suburb of Amherst.

The death-penalty question complicated the extradition process. France, which abolished capital punishment in 1981, does not extradite suspects who face execution at home.

Because of this, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced last month the government agreed not to seek the death penalty.

After the slaying, authorities believe Kopp fled to New Jersey, Mexico, England, Ireland and France, where he was arrested March 29 after picking up a package containing $300 in the town of Dinan.

Cops tracked him down by intercepting the Internet messages of a Brooklyn couple who planned to give him a safe house.With Post Wire Services